BIKE - More Fun Sections and a Dose of Da-da-Danger

Ridiculously fabulous day for late September, bright, sunny and hotte

Don't look back. OK I looked back and this is what I saw.
View from the climb side —just one section of this
hair-raising descent, and (what goes down must come
back up) climb.

r — 81F — than we've had in some time. That, coupled with a huge free festival down by the water meant that every car that had air in its tyres, and maybe even license plates, was on the road.

But, since I had finally gotten the new Garmin soft strap synched up with my aging Garmin Edge 305, I decided to throw myself at "the Hill" one more time.

Would I get sustained spikes in the 200 bpms with this one? No. It worked well, although the strap is a lot more snug than the classic strap. A roughly 48" chest seems to be about as much as the adjustment will allow. (DC Rainmaker has some interesting thoughts on HR spikes)

But what was I thinking? Half of Nassau County was in their cars ... and they were right here. Now.  Crowded roads with debris strewn shoulders and 35 mph descents did not make for a happy mix.

By the time I was a 1/3 of the way down, it was clear that that this was going to be interesting. I'm 200#, so when I get rolling with gravity, the speed piles up quickly. Today the 25mm tyres felt as jittery as I did.

Cars were streaming by on my right, and concentration had to be 100% on the road surface (not on the cars or whether they could see me) for grooves, potholes, bumps and twigs.

I maxxed at a rather sad

Actually the sky was blue.

Sands Point is a popular place to ride,
despite the lack of shoulder.

33 mph, leaning heavily on the brakes most of the way.

It's not so much a matter of going slow; it's a matter of how hard it is to dial it back if you let it reach 40.

I need more practice. But at least I am more confident I am not getting some weird tachycardia with a 225 bpm heart rate.


There was, however, no margin for error today with that many Sunday afternoon drivers feeling their oats. And Sunday afternoon cyclists like myself.

So, back up the hill to where I came from. Get near the top, and
turn right, to the steeper peak, and you'll encounter some rewarding
14-15% grades.

That's right, 14.4% grade. I looked down at one point 

and it read 15%, right about where the pale dot 

is, on Longview Rd. This hill has three peaks,

each with its own brand of torture.

About to begin the circumnavigation of the point.

So, after being nearly run off the road by a huge madam turning her minivan in an illegal spot. Yes, that really ruined the fun of the descent — normally you can let her rip in the lower segments and sustain the momentum for a long way on the sea-level flat beyond ... Unless a minivan is doing a U-turn and blocking your path.

 She didn't even look. But I saw it coming and applied the brakes early. Her turning circle used the whole road, so I ran up onto the grass. Big ring, little cog.

I dismounted put it into an easier gear to start again, rode in the traffic until I could find a place to u-turn myself, and headed back up the hill.

No way was I going to try to get to Roslyn in that Festival traffic. Back to the slightly quieter roads of Sands Point.

I had to complete 15 miles today for a September Challenge, and with my neck still dodgy, some heart concerns and asthma lurking, this would indeed be a challenge.

But you know how it is with challenges; once you're in the saddle, you're going to do what you can to pull it off, even if your body is not exactly so happy with the idea anymore...especially when it ends with one final 12-14% climb for 70 feet of vertical. But that's what ride memories are made of, no?

The Gold Coast "Mansion Ride" passes by here.
This is more of a "nouveau" villa-type property, but
the area is known for its Gatsbyesque cribs.

Bike - Fun Sections

Fact is, I'm out of my league compared with the mile-crunching hardcore cyclists on Strava, including the ones mentioned here. Spent more than my share of time near or at the bottom of a lot of leaderboards (someone's gotta) but it's still fun.

My neck re-re-re-herniation keeps distance out of the equation, and as for hills —  a lot of climbing work (I love it) remains to be done there for this clyde.

I've ridden a few segments with LIBC B group before injury struck, and I envy them their long rides. I'd like to join the C squad sometime, but increasing distance to even think of 40 miles is an incremental challenge, and the ten percent increase rule is in effect.



With other sports also figuring in my multi-sport fun-quation, I have finally figured that my neck discs — as evidenced by another 6 month stint in physical therapy last year — cannot handle surfing one day and riding for an hour-plus the next. It's just too much time in the prone position or the neck craned in two days.  I have to be very careful when stringing together high intensity efforts in 4 or so sports. Even golf has its temptations to excess — trying to break the 100-mph swing barrier for one (over, done and never again). Hard and long windsurfing sessions are also now rationed.

But I make the best of it, and enjoy putting the most I can into 40 minute-to-1-hr-15 minute rides, depending on available time. Here are some of my favorite sections in Sands Point, N.Y.  (Land's End ;)).


ROUND THE POINT

Some days, when it's calm, other options beckon.
Glenwood Landing, N.Y. looking west-ish.

A segment has a very harmonious feel to it — it's a loop doggone it! gotta love that — with a significant, wide hairpin allowing a fast 270-degree downhill descent followed by a flat run alongside the water, with its the fantastic views of The Sound, Manhattan, the Bronx and Westchester. This blends into a sprinter's dream lead-in to a shortish but strength-sapping out of the saddle climb.

The dangers are 1)  the washout-tempting left turn at the end of Middleneck onto Lighthouse. How low can you go/will your tyres' grip hold?, 2) followed by a fast curving downhill grooved with ruts and creases in the road, peeled wounds in the asphalt, a few potholes and debris. Your mountain bike skills come in handy here, but on a road bike. Butt hanging out the back, far away from the handlebars, let the front wheel float a little over the bumps and make sure you don't slot that 25mm tyre in a longitudinal 25mm crack in the tarmac. If you do you're going down.

Above middle of the pack position is an ephiphany for this Strava bottom-dweller this weekend; very nice to be on the same LB page with the esteemed Gerry Widen, Monte McIndoe, Rickshaw Driver (is a better handle possible?), and Pete Stancati (cos his name is in caps).

I'd aimed for 17.0 mph average on this, and missed by 0.1 -- the sit-up coasting, paying homage to the view won out over speed at any cost.

That said, 17.5 to 18 are in reach here, with a slightly longer uphill sprint and better finish to the climb. Just watch out for sand on the final 100-degree turn before the run up to the climb.  (245/520).

Yeah, at first I read that 245 out of 250, but it's really 245th out of 520. *Pinches*

LEAVING THE POINT

Today was another of those warm and uber humid affairs,
but 7 degrees cooler. You could shovel the air
with a spatula. 

This is hands down my favorite sprint. Bringing speed from the waterside flat into the run-up provides an ideal scenario for the larger more powerful sprinter, the challenge becomes how long you can sustain the out of the saddle at max, and then cycle through the gears to spin out the remainder? "Spin out?" What a joke! Who am I kidding? By the top of this hill I am grinding it out. Spent. And facing another uphill after the right back on to Middleneck.

It's the only kind of uphill a Clyde likes, brutal but starts with a sprint, and is over and done with just 40 feet of vert. Nice to be able to hang in the same territory as Unmalin 3, Widen, Stancati and Bklyn Biker ;)


LIGHTHOUSE SPRINT
Oy! Downhill here, with a big hump in the middle, which, if you have it in you, is out of the saddle sprintable for big boys.

Problem is about 15 feeder roads on the right side some of which are blind/clueless; stop signs and road hazards. It's too dangerous to take too fast. The risks required for a good speed here challenge your sense of self-preservation.  It's an important part of Land's End TT below.



LAND'S END TT
Didn't know this segment even existed until today. It's an interesting challenge but a dangerous one, which probably explains its anonymity. If you get up a head of steam and maintain it through the undulations, you are faced with a number of significant hazards: stop signs and almost blind feeder road entrances to the main road. If you're even going to think of TTing this, you better have great brakes and tyres, because the faster you go the less time there is to stop for entering vehicles.

One downhill section, however, near the most well-heeled portion of "land's end" was recently resurfaced for slick silent -2%/-3% grade speed. Middleneck Rd. still needs more of a makeover further up though: The road surface is often rugged. There are ruts, potholes, utility covers, twigs, acorns, debris, suicidal squirrels ... oh, and plenty of cars in too-close quarters. (156/217) Hazardous descent.

156 / 217


and a hidden segment ...

LIGHTHOUSE RD TO MIDDLENECK
It's all well and good sprinting up to Middleneck in leaving the point. Suits me nicely, but the equalizer, is the payback round the corner. If I'm grinding the last part of Lighthouse, the remainder of the climb to Sands Point Road, is another dose of grind. A grind sandwich, with the meat on the bottom and two pieces of thick stale bread on top. If I was above middle of the pack before, I'm losing places as the climbers make up ground here while I plod on. 327 / 498 

                View this Course on MapMyRide
           

Photogenic Fall Riding Begins

OK, so today would have been perfect for SUP ing ...
crisp, cool, dry and calm. Even the seagulls were chillin'.

 SUP ing was not an option. I ripe dup my shoulder the other week and it needed time to heal. Good enough to ride a bike though, it was, so that was the Rx.

This was supposed to be an easy, mellow ride, and for most series cyclists, my 12.5 mph average would be just that. If it were flat. but it ain't, especially if you hit the good bits—all the side hills off Middleneck road. 

Part of the joy of riding around the Sand's point area is the time-sucking cogset grinding panoply of hills of exquisite steepness. I suck at hills, and therein lies the challenge. The more you do them, the better you get, and the less daunting they become.

And to finish off my longest ride of the season (back
from injury) I get a 14.3 % grade in the last 1/4 mile.

They start out innocently enough and then drop suddenly like cliffs, daring you to take the plunge and see if you have the legs to ride 'em back up. Others are more roller-coastery...offering a just enough momentum to make the upsides more doable without the low-mph slog.

A few extra wicked ascents and decents in there. The unfortunate part is that some of the decents are "un-bombable" because of 90-degree corners strewn with various combinations of road debris, sand in critical turns. But there were a few ripping skeins all the same. Eyes peeled for twigs, squirrels, uncovered gas and water main holes, ruts, acorns, more squirrels and cars exiting driveways. 

Of course I always wind up taking a photo of the same spot ... The Sound and Manhattan as seen from Lighthouse Road — it's too alluring, too stop you in your tracks-ing, not to stop and pluck a cell-phone camera (wrapped in arm-warmers today, just in case it got cool again). from the pocket.

The other week it even maintained it's mystique in the heat
and humidity.

Yep, shouldn't keep a glass screened phone in a cycling back pocket; too vulnerable in a crash and it could turn into a shape object in all the wrong circumstances. But this was supposed to be a mellow ride ... and, like I said, it was wrapped in an arm-warmer.

But ... I was not able to keep it altogether mellow. On a couple of sections my Strava-infection reared its orange pointed tin-foil head, as personal records were in sight. Forget about the segment leads, although there are one or two where I'm modestly competitive ... i.e. not in the bottom 10-15, but more like a 1/3 to a 1/2 the way up the depth chart.

A week or so ago you could cut the air ... 

So I huffed and puffed my way up a few monster steeps, and up the leaving the point hill sprint, but the legs did not have it.

Did it accomplish the objective -- de-stress at least temporarily? Yes, for sure. I left the house a ball of ragged nerves, thanks to a high intensity dose of teenage son aggravation. When he bugs M., well you know what they say, "happy wife, happy life." He needs to make that connection...it also works in the sideways direction: "Happy mom, happy son!"

Scratching out Some Wind Before the Storm

Mike at play; kids at play.

The radar showed storms approaching from the west, sliding slowly north and east. And like they often do, they stalled somewhere around the Nassau Suffolk boundary, bestowing a couple of hours of solid 5.5.

But in the back of my mind was the knowledge that high winds hail and flash flooding were in the forecast for some parts of the area. You almost want a rear view mirror on the boom to keep an eye on the sky on outbound tacks.

I'd wanted to get some time on the JP 109 FSW and the 5.5. Ezzy and that's just what the narrowing isobars dished up. Stay close to shore, don't get caught offshore if the wind suddenly dies or the first thunderclap booms.

As often happens in these situations — when you try to maximize a lot of sailing in a short amount of time — "just one last run — this is it" runs like a ticker tape across the mind. At some point you have to obey the inner voice and return to shore.

Even a gray and cloudy day has its moments of light 

I'd be driving back into the storm and the potential flash floods. BTDT many time before from here, but best to err on the side of caution. Sailed till the arms were well and truly stretched. 

Very happy with the setup today. Harness lines were in just about the right place. Boom set just right, downhaul just right. Gotta love it; didn't have to waste any time adjusting.

Staying close to shore forced some jibing discipline, and the wind obliged with growing power. Finally squeezed off a good one -- so that's what they mean about sheeting in and "bending zee knees" ... it really works!

The storms held off for hours; Mike and Mike continued sailing, while Chrissy, Al and a few assorted windsurfers and passers by enjoyed the freshest breeze the island could manage, on an otherwise overwhelmingly hot and muggy day. The forecast was 15-20 -- We showed up; we got lucky -- about 23 with occasional sand blowing. Riding back into the oncoming rain was relaxing for a change.